Identity
The bargained. Channels through pact with a greater power. The deal is the source; the deal is the price. Warlocks of the Prime Plane include Drownside fixers who signed away their reflection for the right to make people forget conversations, Halcyion deserters who took a Voidcaller pact when their command betrayed them, frontier homesteaders who shook a hand at a Mythar ruin and woke up with one eye answering to something older than the star, and Aurelion court survivors who chose the Archfey over the executioner. The patron is not metaphor; the patron is on the other end of the line.
Proficiencies
Level Progression
- L1Pact Magic
You channel Rift Energy through a pact with a greater power. You know 2 cantrips and 2 1st-level channels from the Warlock channel list at this level (channels-known and cantrips-known grow per the Warlock progression table, to be authored). You cast all channels using Pact-Slots, which are always slotted at the maximum slot level you can normally cast. Pact-Slots refresh on a short or long rest. Channel save DC = 8 + proficiency bonus + CHA modifier. Channel attack modifier = proficiency bonus + CHA modifier.
Patron's WhisperYour patron is not a metaphor. Once per long rest, you can attempt to receive a single low-bandwidth communication from your patron — a one-sentence answer, a glimpse, an impression, an evasion. The patron is under no obligation to be helpful, candid, or comprehensible. The GM determines what arrives. This feature does not bypass distance, planar boundaries, or wards your patron cannot reach through; absence of an answer is itself information.
- L2Eldritch Invocations
Your continued contact with your patron gifts you with a library of modular abilities — small, always-on tricks and modifications you select from the Eldritch Invocations list (to be authored as separate content). You learn 2 invocations at this level. You gain additional invocations at Warlock levels 5, 7, 9, 12, 15, and 18, for a total of 8 invocations by level 18. Some invocations have prerequisites (Warlock level, Pact Boon, or known channel). When you gain a Warlock level, you may swap one previously chosen invocation for another for which you qualify. Sample invocations (non-exhaustive, illustrative): improvements to a signature cantrip's damage or range, at-will utility channels (read minds for surface-level information, walk unseen in dim light, breathe in vacuum, see in total darkness), short-rest recovery options for a single channel slot, Pact-Boon enhancements, and ribbon abilities tied to specific patrons. The full invocations roster lives in /content/invocations/ once authored.
- L3 Subclass featureOtherworldly Patron
The being on the other end of your pact takes shape in your mechanics. Choose your Patron: Pact of the Voidcaller, Pact of the Archfey, Pact of the Mythar Echo, Pact of the Demon Prince, or Pact of the Old One. Your Patron grants features now and at 7th, 11th, 15th, and 18th level, and adds a small Expanded Channels list to your channels available to learn.
- L4 ASI / Feat
- L5Pact Boon
Your patron grants you a binding gift — a single, physically (or quasi-physically) instantiated token of the pact. Choose one: • **Pact of the Blade.** You can create a Rift-bound weapon in an empty hand as a bonus action. You choose its form each time you summon it (any melee weapon, including monk and martial weapons). You are proficient with it while wielding it; you may use CHA in place of STR or DEX for its attack and damage rolls. It dismisses if you let it leave your hand for longer than 1 minute or release it as a free action. Existing magic weapons can be bonded over a 1-hour ritual; while bonded, you can summon them through Pact of the Blade. • **Pact of the Chain.** You learn a 1-action ritual that binds an unusual familiar (an imp, sprite, quasit, pseudodragon, ether-mote, Mythar-shard-spider — list to be authored). The familiar serves as a scout and proxy. Once per turn, you can forgo one of your own attacks to have your familiar make one attack as a reaction. • **Pact of the Tome.** Your patron gifts you a Book of Whispers. You add 3 cantrips of your choice (from any class's cantrip list) to your cantrips known; they do not count against your cantrips known limit. The tome is a focus for your channeling. • **Pact of the Talisman.** Your patron grants you a Rift-bound talisman (amulet, ring, branded scar — choose form). While you wear it, you may add a d4 to any failed ability check, a number of times per long rest equal to your proficiency bonus. The talisman is the conduit for several Pact-Talisman-keyed invocations.
- L7 Subclass feature
- L8 ASI / Feat
- L10Pact Resilience Capstone
Your patron's presence in you hardens the connection. Choose one damage type from this set when you gain this feature: cold, fire, lightning, necrotic, psychic, radiant, or rift. You gain resistance to that damage type, drawn from the texture of your patron's nature. You may change the chosen damage type when you gain a Warlock level, representing your patron's mood, attention, or current concerns.
- L11 Subclass featureMystic Arcanum (6th)
Your patron grants you access to a channel of higher order than your normal pact slots can hold. Choose one 6th-level channel from the Warlock channel list as your 6th-level Mystic Arcanum. You can cast it once without expending a Pact-Slot; you regain the ability to cast it on a long rest. You may swap your chosen Mystic Arcanum on a long rest spent in contemplation of your patron.
- L12 ASI / Feat
- L13Mystic Arcanum (7th)
Choose one 7th-level channel from the Warlock channel list as your 7th-level Mystic Arcanum. Castable once per long rest without expending a Pact-Slot.
- L15 Subclass featureMystic Arcanum (8th)
Choose one 8th-level channel from the Warlock channel list as your 8th-level Mystic Arcanum. Castable once per long rest without expending a Pact-Slot.
- L16 ASI / Feat
- L17Mystic Arcanum (9th)
Choose one 9th-level channel from the Warlock channel list as your 9th-level Mystic Arcanum. Castable once per long rest without expending a Pact-Slot.
- L18 Subclass feature
- L19 ASI / Feat
- L20Eldritch Master Capstone
Your bargain is fully integrated. Once per long rest, you can spend 1 minute entreating your patron and immediately regain all expended Pact-Slots. The patron is not obligated to answer without cost — the GM may permit the recovery in exchange for a narrative complication, a future obligation, or a small piece of the warlock's autonomy, scaled to the moment. Additionally, your CHA score and CHA maximum each increase by 2 (to a maximum of 24 at this tier).